Gobo Wheel Location Drive

ABSTRACT

A gobo wheel with automatic detection system that automatically detects a rotational position of the gobo. The rotational position can be detected by a magnetic marking system. Each of the gobos can be randomly placed within the holder. The position of the gobos can be automatically determined during a start up routine for example, and then those positions can be stored and used for later determination of a position.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This is a continuation of Ser. No. 12/546,821, filed Aug. 25, 2009,which is a continuation of Ser. No. 11/777,006, filed Jul. 12, 2007.This application also claims priority to U.S. Provisional Application60/830,773, filed Jul. 13, 2006.

BACKGROUND

A gobo is a device that shapes light. Many lighting devices use a holderfor multiple gobos. The holder allows selection of one of the gobos tobe placed into the beam of the light beam. It also allows simultaneousrotation of all these gobos, including the one in the light beam.

For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,402,326 shows a device with a gobo wheel,having five gobos and an open hole thereon. The gobo wheel holds thefive gobos, and the gobo wheel is rotatable to allow any of the fivegobos to be placed within the “optical train”, which is the train oflight that passes from the light bulb to the output beam of the light.In addition, the gobo wheels are rotatable as part of an effect of arotating gobo. The central gear arrangement causes all of the gobos tobe rotated simultaneously. When the central gear is actuated, each ofthe five gobos simultaneously rotate.

SUMMARY

The present application teaches a system which allows calibration of thegobos and their current positions.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

These and other aspects will now be described in detail with referenceto the accompanying drawings, wherein:

FIG. 1 illustrates an embodiment.

FIG. 2 illustrates a flow diagram.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

The general structure and techniques, and more specific embodimentswhich can be used to effect different ways of carrying out the moregeneral goals, are described herein.

The inventor noticed a problem that existed in gobo wheels of this type.The gobo elements need to be placed on the wheel, and need to bereplaceable. However, the orientation of the gobo is very important forproperly locating the gobo based on a remote command. The gobo wheelsare often placed in their desired orientation. However, if theorientation is incorrect when placed, then the gobo wheels may be out ofsync relative to the control.

FIG. 1 illustrates an embodiment. Gobo wheel 100 includes a plurality ofgobo elements 110, 120, 130, 140 thereon. Each of the gobo elementsincludes a toothed outer surface 150, which interacts with a central sungear 160. The sun gear is driven by a motor shown as 161. The sun gearcan be driven in either the clockwise or counterclockwise directions torotate each of the gobo wheels 110-140 simultaneously.

Each of the gobo wheels 110-140 includes a sensor part thereon. Gobowheel 110 includes sensor part 111. In this embodiment, the sensor partmay be a magnet. The magnet is located at a point on the gobo wheelknown as position 0. This is a point where the gobo wheel is eitherupright, or alternatively in a specified position. Each of the gobowheel locations also includes a detector part 112 which detects thesensor.

In the case of a magnet, the detector may be simply a magneticallyactuatable set of contacts which is closed by contact with the magnet.Such contacts are conventional, and are well-known, for example, in thealarm industry. Each of the sensors 112 is connected to a processingpart 170. The processing part 170 may also control the operation of therotation of the wheel 100 as well as the rotation of the sun gear 160.

The processor initially runs through a calibration routine which followsthe steps of the flowchart of FIG. 2. The operation begins by assigninga current position of each gobo as position 0 at 200. This currentposition can be effectively random, since the position will bedetermined via the routine. A variable n is set to 0 at 200.

Each of the five gobos are checked at 205 to determine if any instancesof sensing are detected at 210. A sense is detected at 210 when one ofthe sensors 111 is directly adjacent to one of the detectors 112. Whenthis sense occurs, happens, the gobo is in its “home” position. For gobox, here a gobo 110, the home position variable is assigned to n, and thevalue is stored at 215. This value now represents the actual position ofthe gobo as placed in the holder.

The next n is then obtained at 220, and the process repeats. The systemindexes through each of the positions, and therefore obtains an offsetfor each of the home positions.

For example, the system knows that at any given time, a specifiedposition of the sun gear will represent the home position of the gobo110. The system knows the specified home position for each of the othergobos also. For any desired gobo position, therefore, the processor 170can simply add an offset related to the home position value, and obtainthe exact position of the gobo.

This system may be advantageous since the gobos can be placed in anyrandom orientation into the gobo wheel 100. Alternatively, one caneither place or try to place each of the gobo wheels into the calibratedpositions, and use the routine of FIG. 2 to determine if they are, infact, in a calibrated position. The calibration routine can be carriedout at each specified amount of time, or when the gobo wheel is replacedor reoriented or on restart.

The above has described the sensors being magnetic, but it should beunderstood that the sensors can also be optical detection, for example,using a photo diode or infrared diode to detect an optical mark, or canbe any other type of proximity sensor.

In addition, while the above has described the use of a specified sungear arrangement, it should be understood that the above can be used forany gobo calibration sequence. More or fewer than five gobos may be onany gobo wheel, and multiple wheels may also be oriented and calibratedin this way.

The above has described a routine that indexes through all the gobos tocarry out a calibration, but it should be understood that any singledevice can be calibrated in this way.

Although only a few embodiments have been disclosed in detail above,other embodiments are possible and the inventor intends these to beencompassed within this specification. The specification describesspecific examples to accomplish a more general goal that may beaccomplished in another way. This disclosure is intended to beexemplary, and the claims are intended to cover any modification oralternative which might be predictable to a person having ordinary skillin the art. For example, other rotatable devices, such as color wheels,may be calibrated in this way.

The computers described herein may be any kind of computer, eithergeneral purpose, or some specific purpose computer such as aworkstation. The computer may be a Pentium class computer, runningWindows XP or Linux, or may be a Macintosh computer. The programs may bewritten in C, or Java, or any other programming language. The programsmay be resident on a storage medium, e.g., magnetic or optical, e.g. thecomputer hard drive, a removable disk or other removable medium. Theprograms may also be run over a network, for example, with a server orother machine sending signals to the local machine, which allows thelocal machine to carry out the operations described herein.

Also, the inventor intends that only those claims which use the words“means for” are intended to be interpreted under 35 USC 112, sixthparagraph. Moreover, no limitations from the specification are intendedto be read into any claims, unless those limitations are expresslyincluded in the claims.

What is claimed is:
 1. A lighting system, comprising: a processor thatcontrols selection of one of a plurality of gobos, and controls rotationof said gobos; said processor controlling detecting a first rotationalposition of said one of said gobos, and where said processor detectsthat a location part on said one of said gobos is adjacent a specifiedposition to determine said rotational position, said processor receivinga command for said gobo to rotate to a second specified rotatedposition, and using said first rotational position to determine acurrent rotated position of said gobo, and commanding said gobo to saidsecond specified rotational position based on said current rotatedposition and said command.
 2. A lighting system as in claim 1, whereineach of plural gobos rotate based on a common rotation source and wherethere is a single gobo rotation motor that rotates each of said pluralgobos.
 3. A lighting system as in claim 2, further comprising a locationpart detecting device, located in a specified position relative to eachof said plural gobos, said location part detecting device producing asignal that is detected by said processor.
 4. A lighting system as inclaim 2, wherein said plural gobos are mounted on a surface, furthercomprising a rotation motor which carries out said common rotation, anda gear which is on said surface and rotated by said rotation motor, torotate said plural gobos, and where each of said gobos have a surfacethat is rotated by said gear.
 5. A lighting system as in claim 4,wherein said gobos are replaceable.
 6. A lighting system as in claim 5,wherein said gobos are replaceable in any random orientation.
 7. Amethod, comprising: using a computer for automatically determining anorientation of a plurality of gobos in a gobo holder; storinginformation in the computer indicative of said orientation that wasautomatically determined; and said computer producing an output usingsaid information indicative of said orientation, said output commandinga position of a gobo to a desired position based on an applied command.8. A method as in claim 7, further comprising allowing replacement ofany of said plurality of gobos in a random orientation.
 9. A method asin claim 8, wherein said computer automatically determines a firstorientation of a first gobo, stores information indicative of the firstorientation, and using said information to find subsequent positions.10. A method as in claim 7, further comprising rotating said pluralityof gobos.
 11. A method as in claim 10, wherein said rotating comprisesrotating all of the gobos in said gobo holder all at the same time. 12.A method as in claim 8, wherein said automatically determining anorientation comprises using a mechanical structure on the gobo holderwhich detects another structure on a gobo.
 13. A method as in claim 12,wherein said mechanical structure includes a magnetic set of contacts.14. A method as in claim 13, wherein said mechanical structure includesan optical detector.
 15. An apparatus, comprising: a gobo holder, havinglocations for a plurality of rotatable and removable gobos which can belocated on said gobo holder in any of a plurality of differentorientations for each gobo; and a detection part adjacent each of saidrotatable and removable gobos, wherein said detection part for a goboenables automatic detection of only one specific orientation of saidgobo, but only in one orientation of said gobo and where said detectionpart does not detect said orientation of said gobo in otherorientations.
 16. An apparatus as in claim 15, further comprising aplurality of rotatable gobos, each located in one of said locations, andeach in random orientations relative to one another.
 17. An apparatus asin claim 16, wherein said detection part is magnetic.
 18. An apparatusas in claim 16, where said detection part is optical.
 19. An apparatusas in claim 15, further comprising a rotation part, that rotates saidgobo holders.
 20. An apparatus as in claim 19, wherein said rotationpart rotates all of said gobo holders simultaneously.
 21. An apparatusas in claim 15, further comprising a processor, that controls saiddetection, receives information indicative of said orientation, andcontrols storing said orientation.